Is it safe to eat pre-washed salads during pregnancy?

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You can eat pre-washed salad during pregnancy, as long as you store it in the fridge in a sealed packet or container, and eat it before its use-by date. To be on the safe side, give the salad a thorough wash in cold water.
You can remove any excess water with a salad spinner.

If you store pre-washed salad in a warm room, or leave it until after its use-by date, bacteria can form. If you eat contaminated salad, you're at risk of getting food poisoning such as listeriosis. Though it only causes mild flu-like symptoms for you, it can cause serious health problems for your baby. It can even lead to miscarriage, or the loss of a baby at birth.

There's a small chance that salad or vegetables coated with soil can carry the toxoplasma parasite. This parasite can come from cat droppings that have decomposed in the soil. That's why it's best for you not to change cat litter during pregnancy.

If you become infected with the toxoplasma parasite, you could get toxoplasmosis, which may harm your baby, though it's a mild infection for you. Thankfully, listerosis and toxoplasmosis are rare. In 2011, there were an estimated 147 cases of listeriosis in England and Wales, 27 of which were in pregnant women. About 2,000 UK women a year contract toxoplasmosis during pregnancy.

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